Short Description:
SHORTLISTED for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016. WINNER of the SALTIRE SOCIETY FICTION BOOK of the YEAR 2016. The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the... Read more

Product Description

SHORTLISTED for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016. WINNER of the SALTIRE SOCIETY FICTION BOOK of the YEAR 2016. The year is 1869. A brutal triple murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country's finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows. Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.

Categories

Customer Reviews
5 stars

A Fine and Unusual Novel

A sense of bloody inevitability does not detract from the subtle tension and driving narrative of this fine and unusual novel. It seems, at times, to occupy a space between fact and fiction. The spare but affecting prose draws you in gradually to the grinding lives of the Scottish crofters and the characters are simply but effectively drawn. Burnet evokes a strong sense of time and place, not to mention climate, and the climax when it comes is no less shocking for being inevitable. A good read.

One man can no more see into the mind of another than he can see inside a stone.

Reading this book was a new departure for me. For a number of years now, I have made a special effort to read the latest Man Booker winner and as many past winners as possible. This year, I eyeballed a few of the nominees and decided to read one or two before the big decision this October. When ‘His Bloody Project’ became available on NetGalley for review, I snapped at the chance. Apparently though, I am not the only one interested in this gory tale as HBP has easily been the best selling nominee to date.

Of all the Man Bookers that I have read, this was the most readable. Far too often, words like ‘unputdownable’ describe those all engrossing reads that take over our lives and while I did put this book down a couple of times, it is also noteworthy that I managed to finish it in only two or three sittings. Graeme Macrae Burnet must be commended for how he has put this book together. His story of murder and madness in the Scottish Highlands truly flows off the page at an incredible pace. The novel is presented as a series of ‘found’ case files and this makes his story very real. In fact, so convincing is the author’s own introductory preface and other inserted ‘files’ that even now I am still questioning myself as to how much of the subject matter was fact or fiction. As we all know, stories with a hint of truth always seem to capture our imaginations to a greater extent.

The books first half is dominated by the account of Roderick ‘Roddy’ Macrae. From the off it is clear that our main protagonist is somewhat of a social simpleton. Roddy’s voice is used to paint an engrossing picture of life in the small backwater village of Culduie during the 19th Century. He immerses the reader in the life of a crofter, scraping an existence off the land each day before returning to simple homes shared by man and animal alike.

‘…for folk like us there was no other ship than the hard ship.’

We also get a glimpse of the gentlemen class that live nearby in the Big House and who spend their day’s horse riding and hunting. But, it is Roddy’s fellow villager, Lachan Mackenzie, that is the novel’s true villain and throughout Roddy’s account we see how this spiteful neighbour goes out of his way to slyly oppress and harass the Macrae family. This book is unusual in that from early on we know that Roddy commits three bloody murders and it is clear that this oppressor is his main target. What works very well however is that we do not find out until much later who the other two victims are and this excellently adds to the tension of the story. It certainly is unsettling to see how Roddy’s family life slowly unravels from the beginning of his recount right up to the novel’s bloody crescendo.

Write a Review

Review this book1000 characters allowed.Would you like to add a title?

Author Biography

Graeme Macrae Burnet is one of Scotland's brightest literary talents. Born and brought up in Kilmarnock, he spent some years working as an English teacher in Prague, Bordeaux, Porto and London, before returning to Glasgow and working for eight years for various independent television companies. He has degrees in English Literature and International Security Studies from Glasgow and St Andrews universities respectively. His first novel, The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau (Contraband, 2014), received a New Writer's Award from the Scottish Book Trust, was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and was a minor cult hit. Set in small-town France, it is a compelling psychological portrayal of a peculiar outsider pushed to the limit by his own feverish imagination. His second novel, His Bloody Project, has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016. He is currently working on another novel featuring Georges Gorski, the haunted detective in The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau.

Top tips for reviewing

Tell us why you liked or disliked the book; using examples and comparisons is a great way to do this.

The ideal length is 100-200 words but you can write anything up to the 1,000 character limit.

Suggest similar books that people might want to read if they enjoy the book you're reviewing.

Give your honest opinion. We welcome criticism as long as it fits within our 'house rules'.

We reserve the right to remove reviews that include distasteful, offensive or promotional content. To see our full list of house rules click here.

Upgrading your order to Express Delivery

Most of our bestselling titles are available for express delivery within the UK, just look out for the Express Delivery on the product page.

There are two speedy upgraded delivery options for mainland UK:

Royal Mail First Class (1-2 working days, except Sundays) just £2.85 per order

Tracked next day courier (next working day) just £4.95 per order

Royal Mail First Class - £2.85 per order:

Royal Mail aims to deliver within 1-2 working days* (Mon-Saturday). Order before 13:00 Mon-Friday (excluding public holidays) and your books should arrive the next day (excludes Sunday & public holidays). This delivery service is not tracked.

Tracked next day courier - £4.95 per order:

Guaranteed, tracked and signed for, next working day* courier delivery. Order before 17:00 Mon-Thursday and receive your book the next day (excludes Saturday, Sunday & public holidays). Our courier delivers between 08:00 and 19:00.

*Northern Ireland, Scottish Highlands and Islands usually receive a 2-3 working day service for First Class. For Tracked Courier, it’s a 2 working day service and you need to order by 15:00. Unfortunately, we don't currently offer Express Delivery outside the UK, Gibraltar, Guernsey or Jersey. All deliveries are subject to cut-off times and public holidays.

‘Ready To Go’ - What is it?

These are essentially books that are in our U.K warehouse, which are ready to be dispatched, pretty swiftly (usually within 1-2 working days!).

The dispatch time frame is factored into the delivery estimate you see on this page.

Don’t forget every single book on our website is available with free worldwide delivery, no minimum spend required.

We use cookies to enhance our site's performance. By continuing to use our website; you're agreeing to our use of cookies and other terms and conditions around data usage.